Posts Tagged ‘crayons’

“Life is like a box of crayons. Most people are the 8 color boxes, but what you’re really looking for are the 64 color boxes with the sharpeners on the back. I fancy myself to be a 64 color box, though I’ve got a few missing. It’s okay though, because I’ve got some more vibrant colors like periwinkle at my disposal. I have a bit of a problem though in that I can only meet the 8 color boxes. Does anyone else have that problem? I mean there are so many different colors of life, of feeling, of articulation. So when I meet someone who’s an 8 color type…I’m like, hey girl, Magenta! and she’s like, oh, you mean purple! and she goes off on her purple thing, and I’m like, no I want Magenta!”

That’s what John Mayer said. Sometimes, I feel the same way — I have a grasp of what I want in my head but I end up getting something else: something that may look like what I want at first glance but different when I approach it for appreciation. It’s frustrating at times. I want others to relish the same ecstasy I feel when my dog greets me after a long day, grieve the fall of a particular leaf I was observing, miss the days when real people used to sell subway tickets instead of the machines we have now. When I try to explain it to them, they don’t understand. Sure, they nod and act like they know what I’m talking about, but I know they don’t really know how I feel when I see a stray pigeon on the street. And so sometimes, telling people about my perception of the world seems futile at times, but I can’t help but want to share them with others. It goes the other way too. Perhaps I too am an eight-color box at times.

I’ve learned to live with it though. People are all different, and it is the culmination of this vast array of differences that makes our world so interesting. With differences, there are bound to be some aspects in life where people just can’t see things the same way, or simply, the way I want them to see it. Most likely, I am not the only person who feels this way. Who knows, I may even be a six-color box to some people.

But then again, when I look at life as a box of crayons, it is not made up of eight color boxes or sixty-four color boxes. Instead, there are so many more colors and shades that is the spice of life.